The Hannon Watch

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Citizen Action just released a report about how Insurance company contributions to our lawmakers cost us all big bucks in the end because they make our health insurance premiums so high. It's called "The High Cost of Pay-to-Play: Health Insurance Contributions Drive Up Insurance Rates" ( You can read the whole report here.)

The short version of the story is that the insurance companies have given almost a million dollars to our lawmakers in Albany over the last few years and it has been worth every penny for them. Read this:

Ever since the release of a 2004 report by the respected Brennan Center for Justice, it has become an accepted truism that New York has the “most dysfunctional” state legislature in the nation.1 We believe the Legislature’s response to that report missed the mark,2 because it failed to address one of the central causes of that dysfunction: the influence of campaign contributions on the laws that are ultimately passed.

As an earlier campaign finance report said: “[c]ampaign money -- not votes -- is now the currency of our democracy, determining who is able to run a viable campaign for office, who usually wins, and who has the ear of elected officials.”3 This explains to us better than anything else why, despite the general agreement that we face a crisis of health insurance coverage and affordability, the Legislature has consistently been unable to pass even common-sense incremental steps toaddress the health care crisis, such as reining in escalating health insurance rates and profits that gouge consumers.

This report examines the role of contributions by health insurance interests in blocking regulation of health insurance rates in the New York State Legislature, and particularly the State Senate, despite the high cost to New Yorkers of the rapid escalation of health insurance premiums. We find a strong correlation between campaign contributions and State Senate opposition to reforms that would benefit health insurance consumers, including the reinstitution of rate regulation.4 The report concludes that campaign finance reform, particularly full public funding of campaigns, is necessary to reduce the undue influence of corporate contributors on the legislative process.

....snip...

New York State reduced its regulation of health insurance rates and profits in the late 1990s. Since then, health insurance rates have risen rapidly, as have insurance company profits, as summarized in section IV. In response, legislation (A.7485/S.2740) was introduced to restore significant oversight of health insurance rates and industry profits. The bill would require prior approval of rate increases by the New York State Insurance Department, public hearings for increases of greater than 5%, and greater limitations on profits. The rate regulation bill was passed by the State Assembly every year from 1998 to 2006, but never passed by the State Senate. We looked at campaign contributions by health insurance interests -- providers of health insurance and their representatives such as trade groups and PACs -- to the State Senate and the State Assembly and found that health insurance interests alone contributed $900 thousand to the State Legislature from 2003 to 2007. We also found that Senate Republicans received more than three times the campaign contributions from health insurance interests as the Assembly Democrats in the 2003 to 2007 period: $618 thousand as compared to $178 thousand.

At the same time as they were receiving the lion’s share of insurance industry contributions, former Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and his Republican colleagues failed to pass insurance rate regulation. The Senate’s failure to pass this proposal has meant that New Yorkers have had to pay large health insurance rate increases. This is a clear example of how New York State’s “pay-toplay” campaign finance system is taking money out of the pockets of New Yorkers by preventing pro-consumer legislation from passing. The investment the health insurance industry makes in campaign contributions is paid many times over in the form of higher profits. To consumers, the cost of the state’s failure to act is measured in higher rates, and in some cases, inability to afford any insurance, and poorer health outcomes.

This pattern of money and influence also demonstrates why supporters of health insurance reform cannot just work on health insurance legislation to achieve their goals. They must also address New York’s “pay-to-play” system, which one veteran Albany reporter described as a “system that allows lobbyists to buttonhole a lawmaker at the Capitol at 4:00 pm to discuss an issue, then write him a check three hours later at a fund-raiser held just across the street.”5 This system gives health insurance industry interests an unfair advantage over consumers through campaign contributions. This report therefore calls for passage of clean elections, full public financing of campaigns (“clean elections”), which would enormously help to even the power imbalance between the industry and consumers.

Want to know why our health insurance is so expensive? It is because the insurance industry has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to make sure that it stays that way. They are paying our lawmakers to stop them from doing anything about our skyrocketing health insurance premiums.

Want to know who is number two on the insurance companies money list? (Only one senator has taken more money from the insurance companies)

Kemp Hannon!

Kemp Hannon has taken $58,750 from the insurance companies that want to keep our premiums sky high!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Monday, August 4, 2008

A number of state Senators took aride on the NYC subway today to support breastfeeding rights. This all well and good, but these breastfeeding moms would have it much better if Kemp Hannon hadn't kept the breastfeeding bill bottled up in his senate committee. Senator Liz Krueger won't let him get away with it either.

Ms. Krueger criticized a fellow state senator, Kemp Hannon, Republican of Long Island, saying he “has kept the Breastfeeding Bill of Rights bottled up in committee for too long,” and noting that the Assembly has twice passed the bill, the last time unanimously.

Enough already. It's time for senator Hannon to let this bill get a vote.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Democratic State Senate candidates Brian X. Foley (3rd District) & Kristen McElroy (6th District) joined together at the State Office Building in Hauppauge to blast the Republican Senate for another year of inaction. The Republican Senate failed to vote or debate on important bills to cut property taxes, provide paid family leave, reform New York's broken system of campaign finance, or combat global climate change."The party is over in Albany and once again working families are left footing the bill for Republican inaction," state Supervisor Foley. "Working families would have greatly benefited from a property tax cap and paid family leave legislation, but the republicans simply said no." Kristen McElroy added, "The Republican majority has once again shown a complete lack of concern for families across Long Island."

A recent statewide poll revealed an overwhelming majority, 74% of New Yorkers, support a cap on property taxes. Cutting property taxes through an expanded circuit breaker would provide relief to those who need it most and create a much fairer system of taxes, as the tax breaks would be focused on middle class families. Capping people's property taxes based on income, like the circuit breaker does, would give real relief instead of more political gimmicks.

Foley and McElroy both called on the Republican controlled Senate to "Get back to work."

"There is some unfinished business up in Albany; if the Republican Senate is not interested in working for the people then it is time for change," stated McElroy.

Legislation to create a paid family leave program, which would help working families, was also blocked by the Senate Republicans. Paid Family Leave allows workers to take time off from work to care for a newborn or a seriously ill family member. Currently, if a member of the family has to take time off they do so unpaid. In today's struggling economic environment this is an enormous financial burden that working families are forced to make every day. Paid Family Leave would drastically reduce the hardship of choosing over family or job.Brian X. Foley is a lifelong resident of Brookhaven Town. He has been working hard for the people of Brookhaven every day for the past 15 years in the Suffolk County Legislature and then in the Town of Brookhaven. First elected to represent the Seventh Legislative District (Blue Point) in 1993, and Supervisor of Brookhaven in 2005, Foley has a proven record of fundamental reforms and fiscal responsibility. Under Foley's supervision the Town of Brookhaven has enjoyed the highest bond rating in the town's history.

Kristen McElroy is a lifelong resident of Garden City and is a mother of three. Kristen is an accomplished lawyer who served as a Prosecutor under the Nassau District Attorney and currently is running a successful law practice with her father in Mineola. Kristen is running to bring common sense solutions back to Albany.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

I logged on yesterday morning, and noticed that someone in my network had become a supporter of Kristen McElroy, running for State Senate in SD-6 against Kemp Hannon.

Compare the two web pages, and you can see this year's fight in a nutshell. On the one hand, you have a young mother - McElroy has three kids under four - on the other, another decades-long incumbent whose bio doesn't even give a date of birth. To quote her Facebook page,

As a mother of three young children Kristen knows how hard it has become to raise a family in Long Island, NY. With the rising property taxes, soaring fuel prices and rapid increase of healthcare and prescription drugs costs; Kristen wants to hold the line on taxes, funnel education money back into the classroom rather than high administrative costs and bring the people’s voice back to Albany rather than lobbyists and special interest groups.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Kristen McElroy is running against Kemp Hannon for State Senate. She's not wasting any time either. Check this out from from TAP:

Democratic State Senate candidates Brian X. Foley (3rd District) & Kristen McElroy (6th District) joined together at the State Office Building in Hauppauge to blast the Republican Senate for another year of inaction. The Republican Senate failed to vote or debate on important bills to cut property taxes, provide paid family leave, reform New York's broken system of campaign finance, or combat global climate change.

"The party is over in Albany and once again working families are left footing the bill for Republican inaction," state Supervisor Foley. "Working families would have greatly benefited from a property tax cap and paid family leave legislation, but the republicans simply said no."Kristen McElroy added, "The Republican majority has once again shown a complete lack of concern for families across Long Island."

A recent statewide poll revealed an overwhelming majority, 74% of New Yorkers, support a cap on property taxes. Cutting property taxes through an expanded circuit breaker would provide relief to those who need it most and create a much fairer system of taxes, as the tax breaks would be focused on middle class families. Capping people's property taxes based on income, like the circuit breaker does, would give real relief instead of more political gimmicks.

Foley and McElroy both called on the Republican controlled Senate to "Get back to work."

"There is some unfinished business up in Albany; if the Republican Senate is not interested in working for the people then it is time for change," stated McElroy.

Legislation to create a paid family leave program, which would help working families, was also blocked by the Senate Republicans. Paid Family Leave allows workers to take time off from work to care for a newborn or a seriously ill family member. Currently, if a member of the family has to take time off they do so unpaid. In today's struggling economic environment this is an enormous financial burden that working families are forced to make every day. Paid Family Leave would drastically reduce the hardship of choosing over family or job.

Brian X. Foley is a lifelong resident of Brookhaven Town. He has been working hard for the people of Brookhaven every day for the past 15 years in the Suffolk County Legislature and then in the Town of Brookhaven. First elected to represent the Seventh Legislative District (Blue Point) in 1993, and Supervisor of Brookhaven in 2005, Foley has a proven record of fundamental reforms and fiscal responsibility. Under Foley's supervision the Town of Brookhaven has enjoyed the highest bond rating in the town's history.

Kristen McElroy is a lifelong resident of Garden City and is a mother of three. Kristen is an accomplished lawyer who served as a Prosecutor under the Nassau District Attorney and currently is running a successful law practice with her father in Mineola. Kristen is running to bring common sense solutions back to Albany.